here - Orange County Transportation Authority

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In 2008, California State Senate Bill 375 (SB 375) was enacted to reduce greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions from automobiles and light trucks through integrated transportation,
land use, housing and environmental planning. To achieve the goal of reduced GHG
emissions, the legislation requires Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs)
throughout the state to include a new element in their Regional Transportation Plans
(RTPs) called a Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS).
The Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG) is the MPO encompassing
the counties of Imperial, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura.
They prepare the RTP for the SCAG region, with input from each of the counties and
county transportation commissions. SCAG is also responsible for developing the
Sustainable Communities Strategy for the SCAG Region, known as the SCAG
Regional SCS.
However, in the SCAG region, SB 375 also allows for a subregional council of
governments and county transportation commission to work together to propose a
subregional SCS. As one of these subregions, Orange County has availed itself of this
opportunity to prepare its own subregional SCS (OC SCS). As long as the OC SCS
follows the requirements of SB 375, SCAG will incorporate it into the SCAG
Regional SCS.
The following document constitutes the OC SCS. It was prepared by the Orange County
Council of Governments (OCCOG) and the Orange County Transportation Authority
(OCTA), in collaboration with multiple Orange County stakeholders including municipal
agencies, the County of Orange, County special districts, OCTA, the Center for
Demographic Research (CDR), the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans),
Transportation Corridor Agencies, and many community organizations and the public.
The OC SCS begins with the setting of current population, housing, and employment in
Orange County, and then describes projected long-term trends for these socio-economic
variables. The resulting assessment is this: a majority of Orange County’s projected
growth of population, housing, and employment will occur near existing and future job
centers, which will positively impact transportation patterns and therefore be beneficial to
GHG emission reductions.
The projected growth in Orange County housing units between 2008 and 2020 as well as
between 2008 and 2035 will be sufficient to house the anticipated population growth in
the subregion. Further, Orange County will create housing adequate to accommodate
employment growth during these periods.
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